Waning Crescent Moon
Waning Crescent MoonImage credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.(large image)

Waning Crescent in Sagittarius

Waning Crescent on . The illuminated surface of the moon is 21% and getting smaller. The lunar cycle is 25 days old.

Moonrise and moonset

The moon rises after midnight to early morning and sets in the afternoon. It is visible in the early morning low to the east.

Moon phases on nearby dates

Slide horizontally to discover the moon phase on nearby dates.

Upcoming main moon phases

Main moon phases of the following lunar cycle.

Moon phase and lunation details

Moon in ♐ Sagittarius

Moon is passing about ∠24° of ♐ Sagittarius tropical zodiac sector.

2 days after Last Quarter

Previous main lunar phase is the Last Quarter before 2 days on 4 February 2002 at 13:33.

Snow Moon after 19 days

Next Full Moon is the Snow Moon of February 2002 after 19 days on 27 February 2002 at 09:17.

Neap tide

There is low ocean tide on this date. Sun and Moon gravitational forces are not aligned, but meet at big angle, so their combined tidal force is weak.

Apparent angular diameter ∠1860"

Lunar disc appears visually 4.5% narrower than solar disc. Moon and Sun apparent angular diameters are ∠1860" and ∠1945".

Lunation 25 / 978

The Moon is 25 days old and navigating from the second to the final part of the current synodic month. This is lunation 25 of Meeus index or 978 from Brown series.

Synodic month length 29.76 days

The length of this lunation is 29 days, 18 hours and 12 minutes and it is 10 minutes shorter than the upcoming lunation's length. The lengths of the following synodic months are going to increase with the lunar orbit true anomaly getting closer to the value it has at the point of New Moon at apogee (∠180°).

Lunation length longer than mean

The length of the current synodic month is 5 hours and 28 minutes longer than the mean synodic month length. It is 1 hour and 35 minutes shorter compared to 21st century's longest synodic month length.

Lunar orbit details for

True anomaly ∠123.9°

The true anomaly of the Moon orbit at the beginning of this lunation cycle is ∠123.9° and at the beginning of the next lunar synodic month the true anomaly is going to be ∠155.3°.

Moon before apogee

8 days since point of perigee on 30 January 2002 at 09:02 in ♍ Virgo the lunar orbit is getting widen while the Moon is moving away from the Earth. It will keep this direction over the next 7 days until the Moon reaches the point of next apogee on 14 February 2002 at 22:22 in ♓ Pisces.

Distance to Moon 385 266 km

The Moon is 385 266 km (239 393 mi) away from Earth and getting further over the next 7 days until the point apogee when Earth-Moon distance is going to be 406 361 km (252 501 mi).

Moon in descending node

Moon is in descending node in ♐ Sagittarius at 15:33 crossing the ecliptic from North to South. Lunar position remains south of if for the upcoming 14 days until Moon's next ascending node later on 22 February 2002 at 06:26 in ♊ Gemini.

Moon before southern standstill

11 days since the last northern standstill on 27 January 2002 at 01:56 in ♋ Cancer when the Moon has reached North declination of ∠24.270° the lunar orbit is extending southward over the next day to face maximum declination of ∠-24.309° at the point of next southern standstill on 8 February 2002 at 20:59 in ♑ Capricorn.

Draconic month

12 days since the beginning of this draconic month in ♋ Cancer the Moon is navigating from the middle to the last part of the lunar cycle.

Syzygy in 4 days

In 4 days on 12 February 2002 at 07:41 in ♒ Aquarius the Moon is going to be in a New Moon geocentric conjunction with the Sun and thus forming the next Sun-Moon-Earth syzygy alignment.

Lunar calendar

Sources and credits

Parts of this Lunar Calendar are based on Planetary Ephemeris Data Courtesy of Fred Espenak, www.Astropixels.com

Moon phase image credit to NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, svs.gsfc.nasa.gov